Thread by @p_idiocracy

In the wake of the #GeneralElectionResults2019...

A thread on the future of the Labour Party, and 'Corbynism'.

Note: 'Corbynism' in this context is referring to the left-wing socialist policies brought back to the mainstream by Jeremy Corbyn.

1/

A lot is being said about what Labour must do to win another election. And a lot of the blame is being placed at the feet of Corbyn and Corbynism. But the question is, if not the left (Corbynism as they like to call it), where does Labour go?

2/

Does it move from the left to the center-left? To the center? To the center-right?

You hear a lot of people bringing up the fact that Tony Blair is now the only Labour leader in 50 years to win an election. But that fact is, frankly, irrelevant.

3/

Look at what each of those positions brought us in recent elections.

Center-Left: 2015 30.4% 9,347,273 votes.
Center: 2010 29% 8,609,527 votes.
Center-Right: 2005 35.2% 9,552,436 votes.

4/

Both of Corbyn's losses beat these results in terms of raw votes. They're better than Miliband and Brown's vote shares in 2015 and 2010. And while Blair's vote share is higher, it still was not enough to beat Johnson in 2019.

5/

Blair was on a continued downward trend since 1997. He won in 1997 with the help of the media, but when they turned on him, he began to lose.

3m lost between 1997 and 2001.
1m lost between 2001 and 2005.

6/

Even if Blair had not stepped down he would likely have gone in 2010.

Hell, Blair even supported the idea of a second referendum, one of, if not THE key reason Labour lost. Labour safe seats were lost because Labour leavers wanted Brexit, not a second referendum.

7/

Corbyn and Corbynism seriously revived the Labour party. Corbyn himself was and is a controversial figure, I get that. I think everyone does. But the fact still stands that he revived the party, increasing votes and vote share than what the party had before him.

8/

There are whole new generations of young adults and children that supported him, and his policies, and that support for his policies will not disappear because Corbyn lost.

9/

To Ed Miliband's credit, he improved Labour's votes and vote share too. By moving to the left of Brown. Then Corbyn and Corbynism improved on that further. They brought in more policies that people do like.

10/

Perhaps the manifesto was too much. Perhaps it was too ambitious. But people didn't have issues with the policies themselves. It was all about whether or not it was all deliverable.

11/

Corbyn and Corbynism got it 'wrong' on Brexit, by listening to people like Tony Blair and compromising with a second referendum. Even I got it wrong on that. It didn't have a place in an election campaign that always splits votes.

12/

They were wrong on Brexit, and too ambitious with the volume of change in their manifesto. But their position? The policies? They weren't the issue.

Regressing to the center-left, the center, or center-right? It is just that. Regression.

Corbynism - the Left - must stay.

END